PC Tools Threatfire vs Windows Home Server 2011

I had merely touched on a Anti malware called Threafire (http://www.threatfire.com/) in my previous post, which claim to be very effective and could be combined with other AV products to increase effectiveness. I had tried the product for a while in the past. It is not very heavy in memory, but I think eventually, it is something like a IDS with cloud analysis. This is a really good and cheap addon if you only have the AV component.

For my WHS 2011, I had been tweaking to get the best AV/Firewall combination working. In the end, my last configuration was:

• Comodo Internet Security 2011 Pro (Firewall Off)
• Threatfire 

It turns out that I am unable to open the Dashboard from a remote workstation. I pinpointed the problem to Threatfire somehow blocking it and there is no configuration to unblock it. So, in the end (for now), Threatfire is kicked out of the WHS and everything is working fine now again.

So, after a extended period of hunting, the best combination I could get working is Comodo Internet Security 2011 Pro without the Firewall enabled. Let me know how you addresses your WHS 2011 AV/FW needs!

Private Firewall and Comodo Anti Malware

I had previous mentioned that I had given up Bullguard (www.bullguard.com) in favor for 2 products on one of my system and so far it seems to be working good. Let me talk a little more about these 2 products.

First, its a FREE personal firewall call PrivateFirewall. Something special about this firewall is that it does a little bit more than the normal host based firewall. It does process detection, anti screen, key logging as well as system anamly. These are actually very good measures against trojans. Because it does not actually have a detection modules, Trojan may somehow be able to install, but when it tries to does anything funny, PrivateFirewall is likely to be able to catch it and terminate it because it connects back. Its not fool proof, but at least it does that part the firewall should.

Download PrivateFirewall from:
http://www.privacyware.com/personal_firewall.html

Therefore I still strongly recommend that a malware detection engine be installed. In this case, I choose AD-Aware FREE. IT does not have the Firewall, which is only in the PRO version. Ad-Aware had ben gaining some attention recently and I reckon that I should give it a chance. However, I am not sure if its because it doesn't play nice with other security products, I am unable to activate the other components besides than registry which then is pretty useless for me.

If you are not using Private Firewall, Ad-Aware may work for you:
http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

So, my quest continues for the Anti Malware that works with PrivateFirewall and I eventually end up with Avast (for now). Avast FREE had always been one of the more popular choices because of its high accuracy and effective protection. However, it was a bit heavy on the GUI resources and I kinda avoided it until now.

So, here is the link to get Avast FREE. You will have to activate it with your email though.
http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

Lets see how this deployment goes and I will post some updates again soon.

Who reads my blog

You can actually read the detail stats here
http://www4.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?url=http://nemesisv.blogspot.com

In general, lets look at the distribution map:

From the map, it does look like I need to get more attention from people in Australia and Africa because my readers doesn't really reach there. How? I don't have an answer at the moment. However, there are some interesting points from the pacific oceans that actually reads my blog! Yes, thats something encouraging. One of the thing about writing a blog is always about being a egomanianc and assuming the whole world is intersting in what I am writing. I just don't think I go to that extend yet :P But I sincerely hope that the articles I wrote does help people make choices, avoid some choices (mostly) and avoid wasting time, money and other resources in the end.

Well, hope I could keep this up and gain more readers!

Good Job Microsoft Hardware!

If you have read enough of my blog, you will notice MOST of the time, I go about suxing about some poor services, something that doesn't work etc... Today, I am going to do something different! Yes, and Microsoft happens to be our focus today. Let me tell the story first.

My trusty Microsoft mouse finally broke down near the end of its warranty period and I figure I probably should send it back for a replacement. The mouse was show signs of skipping and I could even shoot properly in F3ar. So I begin to kick start the process by emailing Microsoft hardware. anyway, as usual the links was really hard to find and I think I just email the general support in the end. After which, I swap my mouse to something usable.

Within a day, I received a reply asking me to confirm some drivers, settings etc plus to give them the proof of ownership of the mouse, which I went through and promptly replied. Then I was too busy for a few days and spending some time outside office. So, I totally forgotten about it.

One afternoon not long after I actually got a call from a foreign number (I guess support is not hosted locally then) and a representative from Microsoft actually spoke to me on the phone, giving me an update that the Mouse is now schedule for replacement and I need to confirm that I will accept the replacement model (apparently my model was no longer in production). I was so surprise! When have the support bother to actually try and close the case by contacting the customer? In mose case, if you never call and bug them after a certain time period, they will just throw the case in some store room. But NOT Microsoft. They proactively contacted me (even a phone call, after I had failed to read my emails). After the verbal confirmation, I sent out my official OK on the email and the replacement Mouse came the next evening. n fact, I still got another call in a few days after that. The Microsoft representative wanted to check with me if I had gotten the replacement Mouse and whether it is working alright for me. Definitely a 5 ***** service I say. With that, I am also require to reply and close the case.

I know some of you will probably guess that their support KPI is probably based on cases closed, but their promptness and proactiveness in making sure the case get closed sucessfully is impresssive. I think this is one of the reason why even today. I still own the top of the line Microsoft Gaming products instead of switching to Razor or Logitech. OK, they are cheaper btw, but in no way inferior in my impression.

Well, maybe you can share your experience in dealing with Microsoft hardware support in my comments!

12% Timeout Downloading Adobe Flash Player 10.3

If you are having problem when downloading Flash Player 10.3 and it stops at 12% and timeout in about 10 seconds, then you are not alone. I do not know the exact reason, but it could be related to the redirected download link to *.macromedia.com when you actually trace the logs. In any case, the temporary solution is to download the full installer and run it directly instead of going through their downloader.

Grab the full installation at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/fp_distribution3.html

However, if your downloader is still having issue downloading from the above link, it could be that somehow *.macromedia.com actually does not work for you at all. In this case, I had created the backup links below.

For Internet Explorer
http://www.fileserve.com/file/PcAg8sC/install_flash_player_10_active_x.exe
For plugins browsers (anything else besides IE):
http://www.fileserve.com/file/TM6yYd8/install_flash_player_10.exe

However, I strongly suggest you do not use the above link unless the latest is still v10.3.183.5 because you could end up not using the latest version and you know how bad Adobe Flash Player is when it comes to security.

Hope this helps you. If it does, do leave me a comment so that I know.

Almost giving up on BullGuard 10 because of Windows Home Server 2011

Its sad to say that this eventually happened. Its not that I did not anticipated it, but rather sad that after months of debugging and help from both Microsoft and Bullguard, I did not find a easy solution to resolve this.

Here is some background of what had happened. Recently, after the launch, I had decided to upgrade to Windows Home Server 2011 (Despite some features are gone such as Drive Extender). I had been using Bullguard Internet Suite all along prior to this when I was with WHS v1. However, I notice that once I had upgraded and reinstalled the WHS Clients on my desktops and laptops, only 1 of them actually works. The rest of them simply indicate that it cannot connect to the WHS 2001 Server and the server say the same thing about the client. As such, backup and some other functions such as monitoring etc are effectively crippled.

I had been bearing with this, while meantime, I kick started the support with Microsoft, which was my fault that I did not follow through because they had required for all my server's log. Due to privacy issue, I decided that I did not like that idea. At the same time, I contacted Bullguard which went in a spiral and eventually into the blackhole when they said they will get their engineer to take a look at it. Perhaps not many of their customer actually uses WHS 2011. OR plain fact is that people just accept it that these 2 don't mix and choose not to have them together.

Finally, after month of waiting, I decided that I will give up and dump Bullguard. I could try out some of the free solution out there, or buy one that actually works, but I probably won't pay easily now knowing that even commercial Anti Malware may actually not work, despite all they claim for the WHS Client.

So far, what have I tried? I found a free Personal Firewall known as PrivateFirewall (http://www.privacyware.com/personal_firewall.html) and it did actually work very well. Upon reboot, the WHS Client immediately got connected and monitoring, backup status are available. However, although the firewall make claims of blocking malware, it actually doesn't detects them as it does not come with a anti malware module. It only blocks any malware from connecting outside when it tries to.

So, I added a anti malware component to it. I choose Lavesoft's Ad-aware Free Internet Security 9.0 (http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php). Don't be confused that it say Internet Security that it will include a Firewall. It doesn't. At least the Free version does not. This however, fits nicely into my solution as it provides the missing anti malware component to PrivateFirewall. I installed this and tried out some checking and backup. No problem with WHS 2011 client software.

At randomly choosing 2 (pretty good) security software and it does not interfere with WHS, I suppose I can conclude that its not WHS at fault. I guess it is also unfortunate that Bullguard could not work as I pretty like it so far as it provided quite a complete suite of functions including vulnerability assessment (via software version). However, I guess they did not manage to test it with a wide enough range of applications and it eventually lead to this. Guess it only a matter of time I will give up, even though I still have a good half year subscriptions left.